This application claims priority of Taiwan Application No. 091215457, filed on Sep. 30, 2002.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a brake pad assembly, more particularly to a brake pad assembly for a bicycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional brake pad assembly is shown to include an elastic brake pad body 1 having a braking face 101 and a mounting face 102 that is opposite to the braking face 101 and that is mounted on a brake caliper 21 of a bicycle (not shown) via a mounting rod 11. The brake pad body 1 is elastically deformable when compressed by a wheel rim 2 of the bicycle during a braking operation.
The conventional brake pad assembly is disadvantageous in that it does not provide any warning during braking operation of the bicycle for avoiding occurrence of accidents.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a brake pad assembly which includes a light emitting member mounted on an exterior of an elastic elongated pad body, and a battery disposed in the pad body and electrically coupled to the light emitting member such that the light emitting member is activated to emit a warning light upon a braking operation.
Accordingly, a brake pad assembly of the present invention includes: an elastic elongated pad body having a braking face and a mounting face opposite to the braking face, the mounting face being formed with a battery-receiving recess, the pad body being elastically deformable when compressed by a wheel rim of the bicycle during a braking operation; a battery received in the battery-receiving recess, and having a positive electrode adjacent to the mounting face and a negative electrode opposite to the positive electrode; a light emitting member mounted on an exterior of the pad body, and including first and second spring terminals extending therefrom into the battery-receiving recess in such a manner that the first spring terminal constantly abuts against the positive electrode and that the second spring terminal confronts and is spaced apart from the negative electrode; and a pushing member formed in the pad body, extending in a transverse direction relative to the braking and mounting faces toward the second spring terminal, and being elastically deformable so as to move in the transverse direction and to push the second spring terminal to move toward and to abut against the negative electrode upon deformation of the pad body when the braking face is compressed by the wheel rim during the braking operation, thereby activating the light emitting member to emit a warning light.